Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Celebrates New Book

On Thursday, March 3, Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College professor of visual arts, was honored at a reception to celebrate her recent book, “Illuminating Childhood: Portraits in Fiction, Film, and Drama.” In the book, Spitz explores the experience of eight thematically linked works in film and literature from the second half of the twentieth century, touching on issues central to parent-child relations.

Colleagues, students and friends joined Spitz in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery for a reading, refreshments and mingling. Spitz has previously studied children’s literature in the books “Inside Picture Books” and “The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood” and writes a column on children’s literature for the New Republic.